Christmas in July? It's more real than you'd think.
The final Afton kids past chapter! For this act, at least. I might include some next act because I still have some ideas I couldn't fit in here. Anyways, Cassidy's in this chapter! I figured her and Liz would have a bit of a rivalry going on, y'know since they're both the same age and have such clashing morals and personalities (opposite opinions of William and on killing people, both hot-headed and somewhat murderous towards certain people)
19 days till my birthday…19 days to finish this act…4 chapters to finish…roughly 16k words to write…let's do this.
Reviews!
Qxr: Nah, they'll stay sort-of friends. Kind of. Not exactly enemies, but maybe still the occasional bickering. And unfortunately yes, Charlie is that gullible. When will she learn?
Lydia-From-Limmet: Okay, that filet joke was fantastic and actually made me laugh out loud. Very creative idea with the scattering of body parts! I didn't even consider that. And hey, cats can be murderous too - ever read Warriors? Also, yes, Chica is a little suspicious and Springtrap's plan is a bit luck reliant…guess you'll have to wait till next chapter to see how it all plays out.
Trigger warninf: panic attacks, throwing up :P
Enjoy!
Chapter 81
Ho Ho…Oh, No…
"WE WISH YOU A MERRY CHRISTMAS, WE WISH YOU A MERRY CHRISTMAS, WE WISH YOU A MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR!" Elizabeth shouted at the top of her lungs, wrapping the faux holly garland around her neck like a scarf. Charlie picked up her own garland and lifted it up to copy her, before Clara swiftly snatched it away.
"No, no, girls. You might choke yourself. The garland goes on the banister, see?" Clara demonstrated by weaving the shiny green material in and out of the posts. Charlie watched her intently, while Elizabeth's eyes glazed over, a million miles away from this boredom. Liz very much preferred William's place over her mum's, dreading every other Sunday when they were bound by law to arrive at room 302, Land Of The Beige And Blah, aka the main Hurricane apartment complex.
"Puh…puh...oh, nuh. Pneumonia." Cassidy squinted, tracing the notecards with her finger. "A disease infecting the lungs…Sheesh, this one's kinda tricky, Ev."
Addy nodded vehemently, fiddling with a loose string on his Luigi shirt. "I don't even know what lungs are!"
Evan screwed up his face, spelling the word out in his mind. "P-N-E-U-M-O-N-I-A…?"
Cassidy's tan face lit up, and she stuck her hand out to share a high five. "Evvy! You did it!" She slapped hands with Addy and turned to beam at him, her fluffy black bangs falling in her eyes. She shook them out. "I knew you could do it! You're the smartest kid in our school, way gooder than those grade threes."
"Holy frick, Evan. That was awesome." Addy said, clearly impressed.
Evan smiled sheepishly. "Thanks, guys. I wouldn't be able to do any of this without your help." He'd studied every recess or lunch hour with Cassidy, as she was only in kindergarten, and in class with Addy whenever he'd finished his work. This spelling bee meant everything to him, but it was coming up so quickly that it made his stomach hurt.
Of course, Elizabeth had been bouncing off the walls when she'd been picked as Head Polar Bear in the Christmas talent show that was a day after his spelling bee. She knew every word to every Christmas song that had been blasting on the radio, knew every dance move and every cheesy joke in her script. When his kindergarten class was in the talent show two years ago, Evan had hidden in the back, mumbling each word and doing the occasional half-hearted dance step with his face flaming red.
Elizabeth had always liked to pretend.
There was a short beeping noise, and then Clara clapped her hands for attention. "Okay kids, dinner! Beth, can you run and get Michael? I think he's playing his music again."
"Okie!" Elizabeth dashed off to Michael's room, where some Nirvana song was blasting from behind Clara's apartment door.
Once Elizabeth had retrieved a very grumpy Michael, seven bowls of pea-coloured mush were placed around the small wooden orange table, along with a piece of warm, crispy toast. Most of the children immediately went for the crunchy toast, but Charlie and Evan went for the soup. Michael, however, looked somewhat disgusted by both options.
"Thank you for this dinner, Auntie Clary. It's very yummy." Charlie said sweetly, swallowing her soup with relish. The other two guests quickly followed Charlie's suit, thanking her over giant mouthfuls of buttery toast.
Clara beamed, obviously pleased. "You're welcome. Goodness, what lovely children, thanking someone for cooking a meal for them."
"...thanks, Mum." Her three kids chorused.
After the meal had been (somewhat) consumed, Evan, Michael, and Addy cleared the dishes and brought them to the granite countertops of the kitchen, and Elizabeth, Charlie, and Cassidy played with some old dolls, ones Clara had when she was their age. Unfortunately, Elizabeth and Cassidy had a…bit of a rivalry going on.
"I want to be the nuclear bomber!" Elizabeth shouted, pulling hard on the shirtless Ken doll that Cassidy was trying to rip out of her hands.
"You always want to be a murderer, or a bomber! Why can't we play pirates and princesses! We always play that at centers in my class!" Cassidy yelled.
"Because that's boring! And your class is stupid, just like you!" Elizabeth fired back, tugging hard. "Now, I want to be the nuclear bomber, and you're going to let me!"
Charlie watched the calamity unfold with fearful doe-like brown eyes. "Um, Lizzy, I can be the nuclear bomb…"
The older girls ignored her. "You're not supposed to play games where you hurt people, those are only for big kids and adults!" Cassidy retorted.
"Yeah, well, my Daddy lets me play this game every single day!"
"He doesn't even let me come over for a playdate with Evan. Your Daddy is STUPID!" Cassidy yelled, finally snatching the tanned, muscular figurine from Liz's hands, his arm snapping off with a pop and bouncing onto the light gray-green carpeted floor.
Elizabeth's green eyes darkened to almost black, a snarl in her voice. "NO. HE. ISN'T!" She pounced onto Cassidy with grubby nails bared, pearly fangs digging past Cassidy's yellow tee and into her soft arm. The dark-haired girl let out a bloodcurdling scream and tugged on Elizabeth's ginger hair in an attempt to tug her off.
"Hey, Clara! I'm here to pick Charlie up…Elizabeth?!" Henry's friendly greet turned to shock as he saw the two girls tussling on the floor, a terrified Charlie cowering in a ball with her knees covering the lower half of her face. Henry quickly set to rescuing Charlie, scooping her up and setting her down before moving on to Elizabeth.
Unfortunately, Elizabeth never took well to being picked up without consent. "PUT ME DOWN! PUT ME DOWN! PUT ME- oh, hi Uncle Henry! When did you get here?" Elizabeth's screaming and flailing turned to joy and going limp as a noodle.
"Just a moment ago, uh…" Henry scanned the room for Clara, shifting his weight awkwardly. "Uh, Liz, don't…don't hit people, okay?"
"Mhm!" She nodded quickly with a wide grin, amber braids swinging. "She called Daddy stupid though, so I made sure she stopped talking rubbish."
"Right." He scrunched his eyebrows together. "Okay, well, me and Charlie best get going." He set her back down on the ground, replacing her with Charlie on his back. The brown-haired girl giggled joyfully, with Elizabeth watching with an envious green haze over her eyes. Daddy doesn't do that with me…
Eventually, Addy and Cassidy's parents came to pick them up, and under further examination from Evan the latter was fine, other than a few bite marks and some light scratches where Liz had raked her nails down her arm - luckily her mom didn't notice. After each kid had their showers and brushed their teeth, the two youngest went right to bed.
Evan took a quick sip of the water his mum had brought him before flopping down on his bed in his and Elizabeth's shared room, tugging the layered rocket-print blanket over his body and snuggling deep into the sheets. He'd always had trouble falling asleep in the past, but now the anxiety was heightened. Tomorrow was a big day. All the preparations he and his mum and Cassidy and Addy had made would come down to this. His stomach twisted with butterflies, both nervousness and excitedness coiling like a snake around it. Up on a stage, all those eyes on him…
But he knew that with his siblings (well, sibling, Michael wasn't allowed to go due to it happening during school hours) and parents watching, he could bash that vile viper into nothing but hissy, pathetic dust.
~lll~
"O-N-O-M-A-T-O-P-O-E-I-A. Onomatopoeia, a sound effect in words!"
The judge, an elderly lady with short, frizzy hair and red cat-eye glasses gave her an approving nod. "Very good! Two points, one extra for the definition, wonderfully worded. Give it up for Sierra Daniels of Capricorn Elementary!"
Polite applause drifted from the audience of parents, as well as the kindergarten through grade three classes. Elizabeth sitting in the front row, however, didn't clap out of true loyalty. Clara, who sat beside a large woman with a sleeping baby who smelt like a zillion pounds of perfume, clapped along, shooting futile looks at the entrance and back to the empty folding chair beside her. William, where are you?
The previously named girl with her brown hair in a braid and a navy blue softball hoodie took her seat on the bench beside Evan's, and the judge read off the next name. "Alright, next up we have Evan Afton from Lakeview Elementary!"
Evan stood up, his small hands clammy and trembling. How could you be cold and sweaty at the same time? As he walked over to the microphone, the snake squeezed tighter. The red tie he was wearing suddenly felt choking, his black shirt and khakis closing in on him. The shiny dress shoes Clara had picked out were too small, the fluorescent lights too bright. They blinded him.
He swallowed, his throat rigid and stiff, as he stepped up onto the stool and gazed out at the gymnasium. He estimated four grades with forty kids in each. Twelve kids on-stage with him, each with two parents. Plus the judge, three EA's, and eight teachers. That totaled to about…he wasn't good with his twelves yet, but using mental math he estimated around a hundred and ninety-six people in this gymnasium, all focused on him.
He took a deep, shaking breath, and awaited his word.
"Okay, Evan. Your word is…cataclysmic."
Sweat dripped down his back. I know this. Okay, sound it out, just like Cassidy told you. First part is C-A-T-A-C…ugh, what's the rest? His whole body was tense, like a statue made of copper. Dad uses this word all the time! It's to describe you and the others! Gosh, why am I so stupid, it's right on the tip of my tongue!
Okay, calm down. Like Addy taught you, images can trigger words. I've just got to see Dad, and it'll come to me. Evan's blue gaze scanned the crowd. His mother had told him that her and William would be sitting right next to each other. If he could just find them…there! Clara was sitting in a black turtleneck she used to wear a lot last year and light wash jeans, a string of pearls around her neck. But to her left was nothing more than an empty white seat, not a six-eleven raven-haired man in sight.
Evan then realized he had six seconds on the clock. The snake choked him, tugging him back by the collar and straining his voice, slicing off circulation and short-circuiting his brain. "Um… C-A-T-A-C…L-I-S-M-I-C."
The judge referred to her notes and slowly shook her head. "Incorrect. Please take your seat, dear."
There was a chuckle from the audience. A half-hearted clap. And Evan had just enough time to make it out of the gymnasium and into the hallway before the snake struck.
He vomited his breakfast cereal and half-eaten apple onto the linoleum floor, crying and shaking furiously as he fell onto the ground. Stupid, stupid, stupid! One word, it was just one word, and I screwed it up! And then if that wasn't weak enough, I ran! Everyone's going to make fun of me, and everyone's going to know and call me a baby and I am!
Luckily, the hallways were empty due to it being class time, and nobody was there to watch him weep and be a pitiful little crybaby. He could hardly breath through the rampant sobs racking his chest and his nose clogging up.
Then Clara burst through the door, inhaling sharply when she spotted the scene in front of her. She slid into the floor, lifting his trembling head onto her lap.
"Oh, honey…" Clara gasped, trying to examine his face for any signs of injury or distress, Evan shook her off, burying his blotchy red face in her leg. He always looked ugly when he cried, his eyes bloodshot and swollen and snot and tears dripping down his freckled face. He wished, and he knew this was cliche, that a black hole would open and swallow him up. Now he understood whenever those book characters said that.
"Wh- where's Dad?" He managed between choked sobs, glancing quickly up to see her pained face.
"He…well, I'm really not sure. You know your father, always working." Her voice was strained with anger, and Evan knew that voice all too well.
"D-d-don't call h-him and fight now, p-please. Stay wi-i-ith me." Evan cried, chest shaking and teeth chattering. His tears and running nose were soaking the rough fabric of her jeans, but his mother didn't move an inch.
Clara didn't say a word, just ran her fingers through his light brown waves, styled and parted to the side for this big day, the big day that had turned…well, cataclismic. "It's okay, love," she murmured softly, stroking his cheek with her thumb. "It's okay."
~lll~
Six PM.
Tuesday.
December 20.
The last day of school before winter break.
The day of the Christmas talent show.
That evening was an evening of finding costumes and props and makeup and grabbing wallets and cameras and phones and snacks for the car. Clara's excuse for coming over was to help get everything organized a, but the real reason was to, from her words;
"William, if you don't come to our daughters' play, each of your toes will be plucked off with pliers and the rest of your parts will be sold to some real sick individuals on the black market. I've already got one child with a crumbling mental state from your little rendezvous yesterday, and I certainly don't need another. Don't test me."
And since then, she'd had a firm eye on William, watching his every move and making sure he didn't try to escape, as he'd tried to nearly every social event he didn't want to go to. The guy could be pretty damn sneaky sometimes.
Clara fasted the buttons on her byzantine-coloured blazer as she tugged on dress shoes under her black flare pants, watching as William did the same with a tan coat. He rolled his eyes as she stared at him, rolling up his plain white socks. "Take a picture, it'll last longer."
"Shut up." Clara snapped.
William's face was the poster of mocking surprise. "Yeah, just 'cause the kid puked means I'm the big bad guy? Somebody's cranky."
"Somebody needs to shut up."
"Oh yeah? Make me."
"Alright, fine. Remember Phillip-" She was immediately cut off by a hand being clapped over her mouth, being shoved three steps backwards and cornered into a wall. A spark of fear flashed in her eyes, but she immediately put that out. She wasn't the same timid little sheep she was last year, no, she was so much tougher than that.
William shot a glare filled with fury down at her, the ghost of a snarl at the corners of his lips. "You're such a bitch sometimes. Won't you ever let that go?"
Clara smirked, ripping his hand off. "No. And you can't touch me, remember? I'll just call the cops and file a restraining order. Or, better yet, I'll tell them all about Phillip."
A growl of frustration emerged. "You need to start watching what you say."
"And you need anger management."
"What I need is for people to stop pissing me off. I.E, you."
Clara shrugged. "Hey, I'm not the one who pushed-"
He cut her off, backing away from her in furious surrender. "Fine, have it your way. Play your dirty game." He seethed as he stalked away, tugging on his shoes and sending her one last look as he stood in the doorframe. "You'll never win. You know that, right?"
Clara grinned, an unfamiliar but very welcome sense of smugness entering her body. "Shut up."
~lll~
"TWEET TWEEET TWEET TWEEET TWEET TWEEEEEEEEEEET!"
William's fingers were still planted firmly in his ears while everyone else removed them to clap politely for the recorder solo played by Natalie Barker. The thick red curtains closed and the squeaking of running sneakers could be heard beyond it.
"I think my soul is bleeding," He commented, squinting in the dark to read Clara's lips as she said something. "What?!"
Clara rolled her eyes, pulling his fingers out from his ears. "Be more pleasant, please?"
William raised his thick, dark eyebrows. "Me at a school concert, which is basically musicals with children, aka my two least favourite things, being pleasant? In your dreams, Clary-bell, in your dreams."
"I agree with Father," Michael chimed in. "I didn't even know souls could bleed."
While Evan gave his older brother a disapproving look, William nodded. "See, he gets it." He ruffled Michael's dark fluffy locks and turned his attention back to the stage, Michael grinning with pride beside him. He didn't fix his hair.
A deep male voice boomed on the loudspeakers and the lights dimmed. "Please welcome the students from Ms Louise and Mrs Campbell's kindergarten classes. They will be performing the song 'Beary Merry Holiday', choreographed by our lovely music teacher Mr Ngu."
Thunderous applause rang out from the audience, most people here had kids or siblings in this song and showed their support accordingly.
And all of a sudden, the stage was flooded with light. The walls were decorated in blue construction paper sky and white printer paper snowflakes, a paper evergreen Christmas tree decorated with tiny handprints in every colour of the rainbow. The kids to the left were dressed in all black, with a dot of paint on the tip of their nose and fluffy bear ears atop their head. The ones to the right were dressed all in brown. And in the middle stood Elizabeth, Natalie, and Cassidy dressed in all white, polar bears, the first and last mentioned girls shooting quick murderous looks at each other.
A disappointed William noticed that there wasn't a single Fred bear or Faz bear in the bunch. How non-diverse!
The lights changed colours so that half the stage was tinted red and the other side green. Mrs Campbell started to play a melody on the piano, and William stretched back in his chair. Maybe this won't be so bad, after all.
Then they started to sing.
A chorus of off-key singing erupted, volume ranging from half-hearted mumbles to prideful hollering. A few kids were a bit behind, a few too far ahead. One girl had her mouth shut and was just humming the tune. Same with the dance moves, some were just shuffling from side to side with the occasional sway of arms, while others looked like High School Musical extras after eating three bags of sugar.
"This is pretty good, isn't it, Will?" Clara whispered, nodding along to the tune - if you could even call it that. "Beth is doing really well. Have you been helping her out at your place?"
William, who was frantically scanning the program, breathed a sigh of relief when he saw there were only two more acts after this one. "Phew. Glad we're almost done."
Clara snapped her fingers twice in front of his face, glaring when he didn't flinch. "Are you even listening to me?"
William seemed to be very focused on reading the pamphlet. "Oh, I'm listening. I'm just not paying attention."
Clara rolled her eyes. "Gosh, I'm starting to think you don't care about what I say."
"Rubbish. I just don't have enough middle fingers to show you how much I care."
A couple in front of the two turned around, clearly irritated. "Can you two shut it?! I am trying to record my child here." The woman snapped, holding a camera almost exactly like the one Evan was holding.
The man nodded. "Memories are being made here, and we don't need your vulgar language in the background of it! So cut the profanities!"
William raised his eyebrows after Clara had quickly apologized to the two. "Sheesh. Mama Bear got mad."
Clara elbowed him teasingly. "Shush, dammit! Memories are being made here, remember?"
"Woah! They don't need your vulgar language in the background. So cut the profanities, darling." William hissed, a mischievous grin emerging as Clara tried, and failed to hold her fleeting giggles in.
Michael tapped his father on the shoulder. "Evan says you guys need to be quiet. Your volume is overriding the film." He shrugged at his father's cross expression, holding his hands up in a surrender. "Hey, don't shoot the messenger. It's his words, not mine."
Clara frowned as she watched the Christmas tree prop that Elizabeth was marching confidently towards, glowing yellow star prop in hand. "That wooden tree cutout is awfully high. What if Beth falls out of it?"
"You worry too much. She'll be fine." William countered dismissively, resting his chin on his fist and studying the stage with an air of mild curiosity.
The volume suddenly rose in pitch in a high crescendo as Elizabeth pretended to climb to the top of the tree. William knew from his time as a theatre kid that there were hidden steps behind the sacramento-green tree, which was 2D and flat and made of hand-painted sheets of plywood.
When Elizabeth reached the top of the tree, William tensed, biting his lip. I suppose Elizabeth is rather high up…. She's practically touching those lighting structures. He mentally waved those thoughts away. She'll be fine. This kind of stuff is looked over in the dress rehearsal, anyways.
Famous last words.
As Elizabeth sang the final high note on the song, she stretched her arms high above her head in a V shape, her hands whipping up and hitting the light supports with a surprising amount of force. Time seemed to slow as an ear-piercing creaking split the air, the structure falling to the stage with a shower of amber sparks. Shrieks from the children rang out as they scattered behind the curtains, the audience growing raucous in behavior as they started to get up and out of their seats.
William rolled his eyes, they were really all just making a fuss out of nothing. Some lights fell, it wasn't they they crushed a kid or broke someone's neck or whatever. I'm sure we'll survive.
That was until one of the thick red curtains started to smoke, smelling of dust and flame and, off-topic, reminding William of camping.
The crowd erupted into screams and roars of terror and anger as the flames licked up the curtains, turning them into nothing more than sparks and ash. The deafening ringing of a fire bell sounded from the ceiling, and all of a sudden the gymnasium was being drenched in freezing water from the sprinklers. William shuddered, he hated the sensation of being wet - hair damp and stringy, clothes plastered to his skin, the chilling cold.
Mr Ngu, a lean man with a black goatee, ran up on stage and grabbed a microphone. "Alright everyone, please exit the building in a calm and orderly fashion! Your children will be brought outside in a separate line and you may reunite once everyone is accounted for!"
~lll~
After the hullabaloo of getting around a hundred concerned parents outside calmly as possible, along with fifty or so hyperactive children, plus checking to make sure nobody was still inside, plus contacting the fire department, plus keeping everyone peaceful and serene, the exhausted staff told everyone to regroup with their families and head home for the night and that the kids who didn't get to perform would go again the next day at lunch hour.
"Daddy!" Elizabeth flung herself around his waist, face flushed with adrenaline and worry. "Daddy, did you see? I hit the lights and they fell down, and the curtains caught on fire and then I got all wet, and then-"
"Yes, Elizabeth, I was there, remember?" William silenced her.
"Oh right." She frowned suddenly, face creased with concern. "Are they going to be mad at me, because I caused the fire?"
William waves a hand dismissively. "Ah, faulty wiring's nobody's fault. Some lights fell when me and Henry were working on Fredbear's back in the day."
"But you should've been more careful, Beth. I'm going to have a word with Mr Ngu and your teachers, they should have known better than to get you to climb that ridiculous tree." Clara huffed, crossing her arms.
William smirked. "Hey, don't be too angry with her. After all, this means I don't have to suffer through two more acts!"
Clara gave him a teasing swat on the shoulder. "Quiet, you. Anyways, loves, I was thinking we could go out for a milkshake?"
"Ice cream?!" Elizabeth squealed hopefully, hands clasped.
Clara nodded, smiling in amusement. "Sure, honey. What do you guys think?"
Elizabeth nodded her head rapidly, eyes shining, but William shook his head. "Sorry, Clara, but I need to pick something up from work and I figured the kids could come with me. How about that, Elizabeth?"
Elizabeth suddenly looked unsure. On one hand, she adored ice cream and was starving after not eating her dinner (half-frozen, half-burning pasta was not exactly Elizabeth's cup of tea). But on the other, she adored her father and was starved of his approval, and he was being surprisingly nice to her tonight!
"Sorry, Mummy, I'm going with Daddy." She hopped beside her father, grabbing his hand with her own and clutching it tightly. "Mikey, are you coming?"
Michael shrugged, swiping through his phone with one of his muted-red flannel. "Sure, I guess. Whatever."
Evan sighed heavily, walking over to stand by the rest of his family. He'd been looking forward to ice cream, but if his father and both his siblings were going, he should probably go too. "I'm sorry, Mum."
"That's alright, dear. Have fun." Clara smiled at them, as she got into the car and rolled down the window, giving them all a little wave as she drove away.
~lll~
Unfortunately, the car ride to William's shop ended up taking far longer than expected, after waiting forever in line for gas and having to drive across town for it, then driving back across to get to his shop. And once they were there, all three kids were metaphorically dying.
"I'm thirsty," complained Michael.
"I'm tired," mumbled Evan.
"I'm BORED!" Elizabeth whined, throwing her arms in the air dramatically as they walked through the large room. It was dark, with no lights except the moonlight seeping through the windows on either side.
William pulled a keychain flashlight out of his jeans pocket and flicked it on, shining a beam of light at a small red door, rusty and reading 'HAZARDOUS MATERIAL AHEAD: AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY'. He unlocked the door with a small key and led them inside the pitch black room. After pulling a cord that hung from the ceiling and turning on the lights, he bent down in front of a small cooler, opening it and tossing a frothy can of root beer to Michael.
Michael cracked it open, drinking a gulp in surprise. "Thanks!"
Evan, however, was gulping in horror at something different. Because, at the end of the small room, past all the scattered boxes and scribbled-on papers, stood a tall white-and-purple bear, dull cyan eyes gleaming down at him with a too-wide smile connecting to happy magenta cheeks. He towered over Evan, and the small boy knew that the shiny bear was big enough to swallow him whole.
"Oh, that's Funtime Freddy. Isn't he magnificent?" William said pridefully, coming to stand beside Evan with hands on his hips. "Yes, he took me quite a while to design. And don't look so worried, he's powered off! He can't hurt you. Plus, his right arm isn't even built yet."
Evan nodded shakily, eyes glued to the animatronic bear. He couldn't seem to tear his gaze away, transfixed. "Y-yeah, Dad, I know." He still couldn't shake the feeling of terror that always made his stomach twist whenever he was faced with these massive metal-or-furry beasts. There was always a sense of anticipation, like something horrible was at the tips of his fingertips just waiting to spring out and terrorize his life.
Elizabeth, who Evan had just realized had come to stand beside him, didn't seem impressed. "Where's Circus Baby? I wanna see her."
"Elizabeth, we've discussed this numerous times. She's being kept away somewhere until she's ready. Why don't you find someone else you like, like Ballora?"
Elizabeth scowled. "I don't like her. She sounds like Mummy, and she's all frilly and likes ballet. I hate ballet."
Michael shrugged, having already downed the entire can of root beer. "Opening Day's on your birthday, right? Just wait till then, it's less than a month away."
Her eyes brightened. "Oh yeah! Thanks, Mikey!" She beamed up at her father. "Can I see Baby then?"
William exhaled, the motion filled with effort. "I don't know. We'll see when the time comes, alright?"
"Okie!" She grinned happily. It's going to be the bestest birthday ever once I can see Daddy's favouritest thing ever!
And as Elizabeth, Evan, Michael, and William looked up at the gigantic bear, each was filled with a different emotion. One with excitement and hope, one with terrified anxiety, one with boredom and a craving for a second root beer, and one with a growing giddy anticipation for a twisted plan soon to come to fruition.
A/N
DUN DUN DUNNN! And there you have it, the (sort of) final Afton kids chapter! I probably should've included Michael more in this haha, but he may or may not get a bigger role next act…
Question/Challenge: what was your favourite Afton chapter? For me I'll just go off of which was my favourite to write, which was definitely the Birds of a Feather duology, I had so much fun making that one.
Have an amazing day/night!
~Ghost